Two Views Of The Aspens
I recently had the good fortune to go on a trip to Southwest Colorado with two photography friends to photograph the aspens in their fall color. It was really a great trip, and even though I have been doing mostly abstract work lately, it was fun to ‘slip back’ into landscape photographer mode! As a matter of fact, I had the opportunity to do both types of photography. While I thought it might be difficult to do both, I found that the two genres actually complemented each other.
For the first image, I have a more abstract and impressionistic view of the aspens. This was accomplished by using a long shutter speed, in this case 0.4 seconds, and intentionally moving the camera during the exposure (so-called ICM for intentional camera movement). It’s as if the image is formed by painting with long, loose brush strokes.
Aspen Impressions © Howard Grill
And here is a more formal aspen portrait. We were photographing at just the right time and the yellow colors were really a sight to see.
Aspens © Howard Grill
I believe both images are different, but equally valid, photographs of the stars of the autumn trip!